In the last week I've put more people on Ignore than I have in all the time I've been on DU. These threads on rape and sexual harassment have REALLY brought out some abhorrent threads/posts. Defending misogyny, qualifying rape, making jokes about it -- I'm not easily shocked but for the last few days I've sat here with my mouth open not believing what I'm reading on a so-called progressive board. This is the kind of shit you'd expect in a frat house or locker room, but on DU???

Jesus, if this is the way so-called "progressives" think, what the hell chance do women have in ANY society in terms of changing antiquated mores? I'm beyond disgusted.

Go talk to the PEOPLE. But don't do it in a condescending, "we're going to teach you people how to vote" kind of thing. Go in and LISTEN to their concerns. Establish a presence in rural areas. Be a source of information and support. Most rural residents are long-time residents and that means for generations. If the Democrats are seen as just regular people and not the three-headed monster Faux Nooz and the Republican Party (who have a long presence in rural areas) you'll go a long way toward earning their trust and, ultimately, their ear. And for goddess sake lose terminology like "hicks," "hayseeds" and "hillbillies." Believe it or not, for the most part, these are good people who would do anything in the world for a person in need. It's important to remember that. If the Democrats are going to grow their numbers, they need to stop avoiding (and condescending to) rural residents.

will turn out for Romney. With the exception of the R Party Faithful, I don't see any enthusiasm. I see a lot of "voting for the lesser of two evils" and a lot of R's sort of looking down and shuffling their feet when asked about voting for Romney. I've seen almost no bumper stickers/signs for Romney and I live in a red area of CA (though not as red as some would believe). I've read here on DU about some fundamentalist sects doing a write-in for "Jesus." RimJob is even anti-Romney. Look, too many of the R's are extremists, either in religion or economics or both. Romeny's flip-flopped too many times for them and they just don't trust him. I just don't see this election as being NEARLY as close as the MSM would have us believe. I dunno. Just my opinion. Take it for what it's worth = $0.02.

It won't be the first time and invariably won't be the last but I was accosted by an elderly Romney voter outside a CVS pharmacy this morning as my elderly aunt and I were leaving.

The gentleman tried to give me a propaganda page on Romney. I handed it back saying, "No thanks." He started yelling at me, "But have you read it?" I answered that I wasn't interested in reading propaganda sheets about Romney. He said, "But he's created millions of jobs" at which point I answered, "Yeah, in China! But we need jobs here." That was the first "You're an idiot" response. I replied, "Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I'm an idiot. It just means I disagree with you." He said something like, "Well, you called this propaganda and it's not propaganda." I said, "I do 3-4 hours of research on this stuff everyday and I know propaganda when I see it." At which point he tried to give me the sheet again, trying to assert that Romney had created "millions of jobs." At that point I said that Romney was a vulture capitalist and he's actually outsourced American jobs. That's when I got my second, "You're an idiot." Of course, it begged the response: "That's hardly an effective way to influence people to vote for your candidate."